On this page

Related content

Still need help?

A Jira workflow is a set of statuses and transitions that an issue moves through during its lifecycle, and typically represents a process within your organization. Workflows can be associated with particular projects and, optionally, specific issue types by using a workflow scheme.

Jira has built-in workflows that you can use without needing to make any changes, or you can start fresh and create your own. You can't edit the built-in workflows, but you can copy them and use the copy as a basis to create your own.

You need to log in as a user with the Administer Jira global permission to access and manage workflows.

Here's an example of a default workflow:

Statuses and transitions

A status represents the state of an issue at a specific point in your workflow. When defining a status, you can optionally specify properties.

A transition is a link between two statuses that enables an issue to move from one status to another. In order for an issue to move between two statuses, a transition must exist.

A transition is a one-way link, so if an issue needs to move back and forth between two statuses, two transitions need to be created. The available workflow transitions for an issue are listed on the View issue screen.

Active and inactive workflows

There are slight differences between editing an inactiveand an active workflow. We place restrictions on the modifications you can make to an active workflow, due to the impact the changes will have on projects and/or issue types that use this workflow.

Workflow status

Description

Inactive workflow

An inactive workflow is a workflow that is not currently being used by any projects. Because there are no issues currently transitioning through an inactive workflow, you can edit the workflow's steps and transitions directly. For details on activating a workflow, see steps below. For more detailed information, see Working in text mode.

Active workflow

An active workflow is a workflow that is currently being used by one or more projects. When you edit an active workflow, Jira first creates a draft of it, that you can then modify as you see fit. When you've finished, you can publish your draft and, optionally, save your original workflow as an inactive backup.

The following limitations apply when editing the draft for an active workflow:

It is not possible to edit the workflow name (only the description) if a workflow is active.

Workflow statuses cannot be deleted.

If a status has no outgoing transitions (Global transitions are not considered), it cannot have any new outgoing transitions added, regular or global.

To finish activating your workflow, associate the workflow scheme it's in with a project (if an issue type is not defined in the project's issue type scheme, that specific workflow is not used):

In the sidebar, click Issue type schemes.

Click Associate to begin the migration process.

Each issue needs to have a valid status, so you may need to assign statuses to a select number of issues after you switch workflow schemes.

A Jira project must always be associated with a workflow scheme, since all issues must move through a workflow. To disassociate a custom workflow scheme from a project, simply associate that project to the default workflow scheme instead.

Adding a transition to a workflow

To add a transition, open your workflow in text mode:

Select the Jira icon (, , , or ) > Jira settings > Issues.

ClickWorkflows> Edit your selected workflow.

Click the Text tab > Add Transition, then fill in the details.

In the Transition View field, select either:

No view for transition — choose this if you do not need to prompt the user for input before the transition is executed (i.e. the transition will occur instantly when the user clicks the transition)

Or, the name of a screen (from the dropdown menu) that will be shown to users, asking for input before the transition is executed. You can choose one of Jira's default screens or any other screen you have created. If no existing screen is suitable, you may wish to create a new screen for the transition.

Adding a status to a workflow

Select the Jira icon (, , , or ) > Jira settings > Issues.

Click Statuses > Add status.

Workflow designer

The workflow designer is a graphical tool that allows you to see the layout of your workflow and to create and edit a workflow's steps and transitions. You will need to log in as a user with the Administer Jira global permission to access the functionality described below.

With the workflow designer, you can:

Manage status and transitions: add, click and drag, or select to edit properties (Workflow properties) to rename, or delete (from the workflow but not Jira).

Add a global transition that allows every other status in the workflow to transition to the selected status. Select Allow all statuses to transition to this one in the properties panel for the transition.

Statuses are global objects. Changing the name of a status on one workflow also changes it inall workflows that use that status.

Hover over a transition or a status to see the relevant transition labels.

Zoom the diagram with your mouse wheel. Pan the diagram by clicking and holding the mouse while on white space, then moving your mouse across the diagram.

You cannot clone transitions in the workflow designer.

You cannot create annotations in the workflow designer.

You cannot directly set the issue.editable property. To do this, simply add the issue.editable property to the status properties.

The workflow designer will automatically validate your workflow and highlight any statuses that have no incoming or outgoing transitions. The workflow validator will also highlight all transitions that have an invalid permission condition that you don't have available in Jira. The validator is particularly useful if you import workflows, or deal with complex workflows.

Creating workflows

Configuring workflows

Check out Editing an issue workflow for more information about editing workflow triggers, transitions, validators, and post functions.

Setting the resolution field

In Jira, an issue is either open or closed, based on the value of its resolution field (not its status).

An issue is open if its resolution field isn't set.

An issue is closed if its resolution field has a value (fixed or can't reproduce, for example).

This is true regardless of the issue's current status (open or in progress, for example). If you need your workflow to force an issue to be open or closed, you will need to set the issue's resolution field during a transition. There are two ways to do this: